TIRUCHY: After kuruvai loss due to water scarcity, the Cauvery Delta farmers who are supposed to commence samba cultivation by August are still uncertain about its fate. Farmers who readied their fields have been staring at the sky for the monsoon’s mercy before going ahead, as the salinity of groundwater increased owing to parched river beds in the region that forced them to opt for deep borewells.
With the Mettur level standing at 78.37 feet with a storage of 40.352 TMC on Sunday despite an inflow of 5,543 cusecs into the reservoir, agriculture experts said that this storage is inadequate. At least 40 TMC of water should be reserved for drinking purposes, and the outflow of 1,503 cusecs can only be utilised for drinking. Farmers who have already readied their fields for samba cultivation, which commences in the second week of August, must wait for the North-East monsoon rains since the South-West monsoon saw inadequate rainfall. Experts asked farmers to opt for a single samba crop and skip thalady, though they are hesitant to offer firm advice at this point.
Despite the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) upholding the orders of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) to release water to Tamil Nadu, the Karnataka government has not yet relented. This has affected irrigation across the Cauvery Delta region, forcing farmers to turn to borewells to begin Samba cultivation. As groundwater depleted, farmers were forced to deepen borewells beyond sea level. "On average, the sea water level is 50 feet in the Delta region. Farmers, wanting water due to groundwater depletion, opted to deepen borewells beyond 50 feet, which resulted in high salinity. This water is not suitable for paddy cultivation," said P Kalaivanan, Senior Agricultural Technocrat. Kalaivanan said farmers should drop long-term samba cultivation as direct sowing is impossible at present due to the non-release of water from Mettur and depleting groundwater. "Given the El Nino situation, it is hard to predict even the North-East monsoon rains. With inadequate rainfall in the South-West monsoon, anticipating good North-East monsoon rains would be baseless. Farmers need to wait and opt for medium-term samba varieties; otherwise, they might face difficulty," Kalaivanan cautioned.
He pointed out that a similar situation prevailed at Tiruvidaimarudur three years ago, when borewells filled with seawater and affected the entire paddy crop in the region. "So, farmers should be very careful in irrigating groundwater for paddy at this moment. If they want to retain income, they may opt for cultivating oilseeds and pulses," he suggested.
A senior agriculture official, who pointed out that more than 12 lakh acres were under samba cultivation during the previous season, expressed optimism about achieving the usual target of 9.82 lakh acres. The official said the IMD has predicted good rainfall during the North-East monsoon, and since most farmers engage in rainfed samba cultivation, achieving the target would certainly be possible.
Meanwhile, agri experts said that at least 150 TMC of water is required to realise samba and thalady cultivation in the Delta region. But the current storage at Mettur is just around 40 TMC, which satisfies only drinking water requirements. As release for irrigation from Mettur is not possible, farmers should quit thalady and opt for a single samba crop.